For those of you who have never traveled in the great expanse of the southwestern United States, I must tell you that the distances are vast. The horizon stretches forever capped by a big sky and towering thunderclouds. The dimensions of travel are so awesome that we used to joke, "Oh, it is about a six pack of Coors from Denver to Santa Fe!"

Arizona, despite its big sprawling ugly city of Phoenix, is really quite sparsely populated. I spent several hours today crossing the Hopi Reservation which stretches from Route 66 to the Utah border. The scenery is a never ending tableau of mesas, buttes, and canyons. Red colored rocks abound among the essentially predominant earth tones of the countryside. The entire plateau is about 5000 to 6000 feet high and it is covered with a range of small bushes, trees and tufts of grass.

There were no visible livestock or other wildlife, although I know they are there. I didn't really see any flying birds etc., however a few thousand bugs gave their lives against my windscreen! ;-).

The area is immense and cries out to be captured on movie film. Most still photographs cannot do it justice.

I arrived in an area noted world-wide for its special beauty and it is quite susceptible to the still camera. This is a view of Monument Valley from my room at Gouldings Motel.